THE NATURE OF POLITICS 3

necessary to show that certain advantages follow from obedience,
and this will only be true if those who control the Government
do so for everyone's advantage, and not solely for their own.

SOVEREIGNTY AND JUSTICE.

Two important facts follow about good Government. First, it
must be strong enough to make itself obeyed and to carry out
the duties of administration efficiently. Second, it must not be so
strong that it can do just as it likes, and cannot be compelled to
fulfil its part of the Social Contract. Dictators to-day accuse
democracies of not satisfying the first condition, and democrats
reply by pointing out that dictatorships do not satisfy the second.
The power of a Government to make itself obeyed is called
Sovereignty, and the person or persons, in a State, who have
this power are called the Sovereign. In order to understand the
organisation of any particular State, it is convenient to begin
by finding out who is the Sovereign; but this is not always an
easy task. If the question is put to a group of citizens of the
U.S.A., whether each of the forty-eight States in the Union is
a Sovereign by itself, a brisk argument will be started. In the
Europe of the Middle Ages it is doubtful whether there was
any Sovereign, since kings controlled some matters, and the
Church others, and a continual dispute raged about the division
of power- The difficulties thus caused illustrate the usefulness
of having a Sovereign who can say definitely what may or may
not be done. Sovereigns do not necessarily exercise all the powers
which, in name, belong to them. The Parliament of the United
Kingdom might, if it wished, order everyone to attend a Church
of England service on Sundays, as was the rule in the i6th
century; but to-day it allows everyone, in this matter, to treat
as Sovereign the particular Church to which he belongs, or, if
h£ prefers, to have no Sovereign at all. Parliament acts thus
because it knows that if it did not it would provoke so strong a
iv^istance that its Sovereignty would be taken away. Sovereignty
only works within the limits that people at the time think reason-